BOARD OF PUBLICATIONS
Meeting Minutes
March 1, 2010
The ACB Board of Publications met via teleconference at approximately 9:10pm (EST), Monday, March 1, 2010. Members present were: Paul Edwards, Marcia Dresser, Judy Jackson, Jenine Stanley, Ken Stewart; Ex Oficio Members: Berl Colley, Michael Malver; Absent: Ron Milliman, Larry Turnbull; ACB Staff: Sharon Lovering.
Approval of Agenda:
Marcia moved to approve the proposed agenda as amended. The motion was seconded and approved.
Minutes:
Minutes were not available yet from the February meeting but Jenine does have the recording and is preparing them for review and approval at the April meeting.
Internet Oversight Committee:
Michael Malver reported that there was a recent spam attack on several ACB lists. He is working to isolate the domain and other key information from posts sent through a member’s account but not by that member and block any future spam from those sources. He also reported that the IOC will meet to discuss language in the list rules as well as how to handle such issues as posts about rival services, primarily internet radio, and time frames for list related disciplinary actions. Ken is the BOP representative to this committee.
PR Committee:
Judy reported as BOP representative that the committee continues work on the PSA handbook and several white papers To bee ready by the summer convention. They plan to present a 2-part workshop at the convention on press releases and PSAs.
Infrastructure and Technical Resources Management Committee:
Berl Colley was named by ACB President Mitch Pomerantz as representative from this committee to the BOP. Berl reported that the Drupal content management software is now fully installed on the ACB servers. The servers are being housed temporarily with another outside company while the committee looks at hosting sources.
DAISY Subcommittee:
Berl reported on the group within the ITRMC that is working on moving existing ACB materials into DAISY formatted files. They are currently prioritizing documents for preparation. Berl did note that the software required does have a cost associated and asked the BOP how his group might go about covering this cost. One member of the team doing the conversion already has purchased the software but others have not. Paul suggested that the group contact ACB Executive Director Melanie Brunson about this expense.
During a discussion of costs associated with archiving documents, Paul asked Sharon to research and provide the BOP with the costs of binding the Braille Forum per year.
Editor’s Report:
Sharon reported that the affiliate presidents meeting and legislative seminar and went smoothly. She will be attending a class on using Adobe Creative Suite for desktop publishing.
Oral History Project:
Berl reported that he had been asked to expand the scope of this project to include reviews of past convention and presidents meeting audio for material of historical relevance. BOP members suggested converting any material currently available only on cassette tape to digitized audio for preservation. Berl also noted that the group currently consists of two people and that in order to do these projects, he will need more help.
Web Site Task Force:
Paul and Jenine reported on recent activity regarding the ACB web site redesign project. Mitch Pomerantz has set up a Drupal Committee to handle the setup and management of Drupal on the ACB servers and to move the web site redesign project forward. Paul and Jenine are both on this committee which has its own mailing list. Jenine assured that she would carry forward the design standards developed by the BOP’s Web Site Task Force. It was decided that the BOP Web Site Task force will suspend its work until the Drupal Committee is ready for design ideas and content arrangement.
Social Networking:
Paul and Marcia reported on the ACB Board’s discussion of language proposed to handle issues involving social networking sites using the ACB name. The board was not comfortable with the language proposed. Mitch will write sample language based on the board’s suggestions and send it to the BOP for review. Until the ACB Board gives the BOP the authority to act on such language, we cannot move forward in developing social networking sites.
Paul moved that pending receipt of language clearly delineating ACB’s position on social networking sites from the ACB Board of Directors, the BOP will suspend work in the area of social networking. The motion was seconded and approved.
Awards:
Sharon posed a question regarding several nominations for the Ned E. Freeman Award that did not appear in either a Braille forum or affiliate newsletter. Marcia moved to uphold the rules as they stand in the BOP Policy Manual regarding such submissions only being eligible if they come from the Braille Forum or are nominated through an affiliate within the prescribed time period. The motion was seconded and approved.
Jenine will send out messages to the ACB Leaders list encouraging more nominations and reminding people of the April 15 deadline. Paul encouraged members to get their choices for winners in to Sharon no later than May 1.
BOPEEP:
Ken asked that members begin keeping a timeline showing when they received each format of the Braille Forum.
Candidates Page:
Paul and Jenine will write the article for this year’s candidates page. After much discussion, it was decided to allow people to include any urls for web sites or social networking sites related to their campaigns. The BOP will review the candidate’s page during the policy manual review this fall. The article regarding the page will be due April 1 for the May issue of the Forum.
Jenine moved that the deadline for submission to the candidate’s page be moved to June 15 with all entries being posted to the web site no later than June 25, and that this year the current rules will apply with the understanding that the candidate’s page will be strongly considered during the policy manual review in late 2010. The motion was
Pedestrian Safety Handbook:
Paul reported that the BOP has been requested to get directly involved with the final editing and production of the updated Pedestrian Safety Handbook by Debbie Grubb who is chairing the project. This update is being coordinated by a special task force and the Environmental Access Committee. The BOP’s role will be to edit for consistency and appearance in the final document.
There was consensus to participate as indicated. Ken volunteered to be a part of the effort.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting of the BOP will take place via teleconference on April 5, 2010 at 9:00pm (EDT).
Adjournment:
Paul moved the meeting be adjourned at approximately 11:25pm (EST). The motion was seconded and approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jenine Stanley, Recording Secretary